


A little History is good, right?

by N1t3sh4d3



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade, World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Based on real places, Character Background, Gen, My First AO3 Post, based on a rpg, loosely based on family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 20:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9566009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1t3sh4d3/pseuds/N1t3sh4d3
Summary: This is my first post ever. It's an old character background I wrote for a DM. I played this character for almost a year. The story got super involved then the game fell apart. She is very loosely based on my grandmother and The Castle is a real club in Tampa. The rest is fiction. Please let me know what you think. I do have a more in depth background going back further if anyone is interested.





	

You want to know about me? Hehe, you know full well that with our kind that opens a whole big can of worms. If you are sure, then… Name’s Charli. Charli Stupac. Don’t worry, everyone spells it wrong. Yeah, Charli is short for Charlotte. Once upon a time I was known as Lottie, but that was a lifetime ago.

I’m older than I look, but you know how that goes with our kind. Typical stock: 5’4, 120 lbs, hourglass figure, curly black hair and violet eyes. Can’t quite place the heritage? Hehe, not going to let that one out, a girl needs her secrets! I was born into a large family in Pennsylvania in 1909.  I had a decent childhood, several brothers and sisters the usual type of life for a coal miner’s family. As a rebellious girl I wanted more to life than what was offered there. I ran off in 1923 and moved to New York for a while. I worked as a dancer for many of the Burlesque shows, living the life of a flapper and having a blast. I finally found myself working part time at a bar in Harlem. It turned out to be Alex’s club.

Alexander Henderson. He was a very interesting person. Alex was the bar owner and took an interest in me after hearing that I worked there as his ‘best’ bartender. He had brilliant sapphire eyes, wavy golden hair, athletically built, a bit flighty, extravagant, frivolous, stubborn, willful and prone to strange quirks but he seemed to care for me and helped me get a bit more settled. Alex wouldn’t talk about his past much just that he came from a similar background out in California. He acted like an older brother to me and made sure I started keeping in touch with my family and sending them some money.

During this time, I found that I seemed to have a talent for business and picking the wrong guys. I ended up the girlfriend of a local, low level, gangster, George Malone. I was helping him to run his money laundering and bootleg business. Things seemed to be going well for a bit. Then Alex found out. It turned out that George was not only a direct competitor to Alex but was stealing from him too. Alex was furious with me and felt that I had betrayed him. I was more furious when I found out George had been using me to get into Alex’s clubs. We broke up and George got himself killed a few months later in a similar dispute with a rival mobster.

Alex ended up putting me in charge of some of his holdings and was very pleased when I tripled the income. When George died some of his old holdings reverted to me so Alex and I struck a deal with George’s old boss. As I tripled more of his income and set up solid investments Alex began to rely on me a great deal. Soon I was dealing with all of his financials. He kept me on as a bartender and occasional dancer because he knew I was able to gather a great deal of information for him. Alex and I were making a fortune.

Then the run on Wall Street happened and the Market crashed. I had warned him it was coming and that we would still be comfortable. I counseled him to scale back and keep the appearance of hard times so as not to draw attention. In the end, he didn’t listen and that’s what caused me to be embraced.

New Year’s Day 1932. Alex had just thrown a lavish party and flaunted everything we had in the faces of several people who had lost so much in the past few years. One of those people was a self proclaimed ‘powerful mob boss’, local to the area. He seemed to think it was all revenue from the club and we had a safe stuffed with cash. The attack was a desperate move to grab some wealth by a small-minded man. The club was just closing as the last guests left, around 4 am, and Alex was in the back meeting with some friends or something. I was floating on cloud nine at the time.

I had found love. This boyfriend, Nate, was everything I had ever wanted. He was funny, caring, smart as a whip, ambitious and sensitive. He had curly black hair, emerald green eyes, and slender but very fit. Nate came from a well to do family and had been working with me for a really long time as an assistant in the law firm we used. He had recently graduated from law school and would be taking over as Alex’s lawyer. We had been dating over a year and during the party, right at midnight, Nate proposed. I also had found out that I was pregnant but hadn’t told Nate just yet. We were so happy together and looking forward to our new life.

The men came in with guns blazing and mowed so many people down. Nate blocked me with his body but we were both hit several times. The one that should have killed me pierced his heart. I’m not sure how I really survived. I just remember Nate collapsing on me, knocking us both down, our blood mixing on the floor. I must have passed out from blood loss or hit my head, because the next thing I remember is Alex standing over me, urgently trying to tell me that he could help me but my life would never be the same. I remember seeing Nate and understanding that Alex couldn’t help him and that Nate would want me to live. I accepted Alex’s offer.

            The next few days were a flurry of activity, very strange and a bit of a blur. I know that the mobster responsible and his men were dead. I know the club burned and the bodies that were found were thought to be us. It was recommended that we leave town for a while. We moved out to California for a few years. The Depression was in full swing but we were pretty well set. I moved some of our accounts around as we started to make contacts in the film industry.

Alex listened a bit more carefully to my recommendations after this. He absolutely loved the face paced, ritzy life in Hollywood. Although he charmed everyone he also toyed with people too often. I faded into the background and set up companies for him. As the War broke out we talked of moving again. Alex was getting himself, and subsequently our businesses, blacklisted. We made the move to New Orleans but it didn’t suit Alex at all, which surprised me a bit. I got the feeling there was a bit more to it but he never really said. We only lasted about ten years there. I began to hear murmurs of a place known as Tampa was becoming the place to start over. I mentioned this to Alex and he quickly agreed.

We got to Tampa in 1960, right in time for the peak boom. I fell in love with the area and stuck around Seminole Heights. I opened a club in Tampa proper and it seemed to do well. Once we were settled Alex got restless. He felt Tampa was too provincial of a place and longed for a faster pace. He took to wandering over to the Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale area and found that it very much suited his tastes. We parted ways amicably and he set up shop in Miami.

I ran various clubs during the next several years. I started the Castle in 1975. I’m not sure how but, my places have always been havens for any lost soul. It’s always been easier to help the mortals…Eventually things got to it is now. If you’re new in town & need help; connections; information or a place to stay: see Charli.

Izzy wandered into my life about this time. He came to me so lost. He reminded me of Nate, with his dark curly hair and bright eyes. I wanted to help him find his way. His story came out in fragments and over the years I’ve pieced together more than he knows. I got him sheltered, introduced to Court and connected with the right people, like I have for so many others before him, yet he insists on practically living here. I know I have his loyalty and that he isn’t nearly as vapid as he acts. I treat him more like that annoying little brother, yet sometimes, when his guard is down and he’s being honest, I see Nate in him.

Cal is a different story. Cal was the next that seems to have attached himself to me. What a lost soul! Whoever turned Cal has a horrendously twisted sense of humor. Why they saw fit to turn an amnesiac and then leave him alone, I’m not sure I’ll ever understand. I was in DC not long after getting Izzy settled to help one of Alex’s children out. Celeste wasn’t very old and was more of a passing fancy with Alex. She insisted on being moved to DC to ‘deal with things’ and wanted to run a club like me. I was there to check in on her since she just opened. What I found was that she didn’t have a grain of sense and was very close to blowing the Masquerade. This caused her run amok of the local Prince and was very close to being Blood Hunted. I realized that not only was she more than a bit foolish but had also lost her mind over the few years that she existed.  Luckily, I was able to save his reputation and our lives, though Celeste died in the fire that almost claimed Cal. I gave Alex what for after I got back for quite a long time.

Cal tries to be like the life debited warrior to a master but I’ve no patience for it. I appreciate that he feels as strongly indebted to me and him as a bodyguard but his unwillingness to grow or learn of himself has grated. He means so well but is in so many ways a child. His blind obedience at times was more than a little unnerving. Cal, believing himself to be some sort of secret agent, has taken to wanting information gathering missions. Trouble is he’s not always the subtlest or as canny as he needs to be. I’ve had to save his hide more than once and usually have to clean up after him. All that aside he has been a true friend and one of the few I could actually talk to without fear of ulterior motives. At least until now. He’s suddenly decided that the time has come for him to grow, change and become less beholden to me. He’s even gotten himself a ghoul now. I am happy for him just the timing couldn’t be worse for me.

It really came as a shock to me how ingrained into the Court I’ve become. I now see myself up for the position of Senechel! That was one of the last straws for Cal though. He decided he wouldn’t stand with me if I took the job. It shook me to realize how much I’ve come to rely on him and how little I think of his loyalty as ever being in question. It also showed that I need to become more self sufficient again. Especially after Alexia’s attack…

Of course, I could be lying. My name could be Jo.


End file.
